2 min read
You’ve done the work to get your podcast up and off the ground. Congratulations! Now the real work begins.
There are several areas of your podcast that you’ll want to hone and polish. You’ll need to consider your main concept to see what’s working and what’s not, but you’ll also want to be thinking about operational process and opportunities as well as key performance indicators.
Set aside a block of time each week to evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Taking just 20 minutes to write down some of your learnings in the last week will bring you a surprising amount of clarity. Keep a notebook dedicated to this purpose and at the top of each page, write down the name of your podcast, the current big idea, who it’s for, and your KPI(s). That way, you can keep focus and come back to the bigger vision.
This honing process is never finished. You’ll find that you will hit your stride in a few months with your episodes and you’ll be tempted to stop thinking about where you can improve or adjust or elevate. You’ll have a routine that works, and you’ll stop taking the time to write down your learnings. It’ll start to feel almost easy. And that’s exactly when you’re at the biggest risk of losing the spark that made it work in the first place.
As you go beyond those initial months of broadcasting it’s important to still find time to reflect and evaluate your show. You may not need to do it every week, but you should keep at least once a month dedicated to 20 minutes thinking only of the show.
The next step in honing your show begins with your audience. Find ways to engage your audience through your show to create opportunities for feedback. There are so many opportunities, whether through polls, conversation starters in social media posts, online community groups, in-person events, or even simple surveys.
That audience feedback is an important component for your podcast evolution. But it is one data point in the analysis. You’ll also want to consider actual performance to see if your podcast is driving the results you hoped for. And you’ll want to look beyond downloads.
- How are your social metrics looking?
- Are you seeing growth in your followers?
- Have you increased inbound activity?
- How have your content publishing efforts improved?
- Do you have any conversion data for actual sales or new subscribers?
As you continue your podcast journey, if you can remain committed to consistent honing of your show, you’ll be able to sharpen your podcast to make sure it is having maximum impact.
If you have questions or want to learn more about how honing your podcast can help you grow your business, I’d love to hear from you.